Entrelac Knitting: A Master Class

I have had a couple of entrelac knitting projects in my queue for a few years, and I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t cast them on yet!

One is the Albatross Cowl, shown at right. Isn’t it pretty? I love the scale of it, and that it can be worn as a cowl, buttoned up and wrapped around the neck, or unbuttoned as a scarf. Versatile and stylish.

Entrelac is a fascinating knitting technique. It’s created with a system of knitting a square and then picking up stitches and knitting another square along the side of the previously worked rows. It seems fiddly, and it is a little bit, but it’s also super addictive. Just one more block, just one more block!

The result is a woven look, with the squares appearing to run over and under each other. But it’s really just one layer of knitting, worked as a series of interconnecting rectangles.

Luminarie Skirt by Annie Modesitt

The rectangles, or blocks, are worked in tiers, building a vertical fabric. All the blocks of a single tier slant in one direction (i.e., to the right), then all the blocks of the following tier slant in the opposite direction (or to the left).

To work entrelac, you need to know how to:

1) Pick up and purl stitches;
2) Pick up and knit stitches:
3) Work basic increases; and
4) Work basic decreases.

That’s it! How to apply those skills is the trick to knitting entrelac. Learn more . . .

If you haven’t tried entrelac before, you should. A couple of years ago, I took a class from Annie Modesitt on charted entrelac (check out her beautiful skirt, above!). I’m a big chart fan, so I took to this method immediately. I didn’t get any farther than my swatch from class, but I can remember that addictive feeling as if it were yesterday.

Entrelac Socks by Eunny Jang

Entrelac knitting is relatively easy to learn, and it’s such an impressive stitch pattern. If you haven’t yet explored it, we’ve put together the Master Class Entrelac Knitting Collection for you. Included are two video tutorials, Annie Modesitt’s Learn Entrelac Knitting with Charts: A New Approach and Entrelac Knitting: Basics and Beyond, as well as three of our favorite projects, the Luminarie Skirt, the Entrelac Socks, and my favorite Albatross Cowl.

Get this collection and start your master class today!

Cheers,

P.S. What are your thoughts on entrelac knitting? Addicting or not? Leave a comment below and let me know!